[Rhodes22-list] Iraqi Democracy -- a couple of thoughts

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Robert,
 
I think you’re right, but I’d add two more critical ingredients for the  
development of any useful democracy.  
 
First, a healthy suspicion of government.  You see that in our Bill of  
Rights.  I think the populace of other successful democracies have that  suspicion 
also.  You don’t get that suspicion when the government is a  theocracy - god 
is guiding the government, your job is to obey.
 
Second, an intrinsic acceptance and protection of diversity - for whatever  
reason.  When this country was founded set asides were explicitly put in  place 
to be sure that no one group would dominate everything (Republicans aside)  - 
that’s why it’s a bicameral Congress and its why there is a complex system 
of  checks and balances.  The people that wrote the Constitution had to accept  
that people on the frontier a had different world view than those on the east 
 coast, and that people in the north had much different world views than 
people  in the south, that little states didn’t want to surrender their 
sovereignty to  large states, etc - if the Constitution writers didn’t accept it, the 
signers  wouldn’t sign it.  The Constitution was crafted to accommodate that  
diversity.  In a majority driven theocracy that doesn’t happen,  particularly 
when the religion is as intolerant as Islam.  Instead, the  evidence shows that 
god will tell the majority 42 creative ways to kill whatever  minority 
disagrees with them.
 
If you look around the Muslim world, you don't see many (I can't think of  
any) successful democracies.  That is not an accident of  history.
 
Dave